ARTS

THE HEART AND SOUL OF A NATION

Arts funding is an investment in our society, in our creative soul. We are not just an economy as our political leaders would have us believe. We are a community. It's through sharing our ideas and the telling of our stories and truly expressing ourselves, that the spark that fires our imagination is born. It's creative thinkers and their ideas that will help innovate and solve the problems of tomorrow. The Liberal government has treated the arts with borderline contempt. As if we are money into a pit full of cardigan wearing painters and poets at the bottom. We need to reframe the language around arts funding, and see it as an investment in creative industries.The economic arguments about the value of arts and culture are well-documented and statistically clear. Creative industries employ over 6% of Australians (far more than mining) and add $50 billion to our GDP, and with proper planning and resources, these figures will only grow.